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FAA to Order Closer Inspection of 737 Engines

Apr 20 2018 by Kate Woods

The two-year-old incident was revealed following Tuesday's deadly incident that killed a mother of two aboard a Southwest flight. The anonymous passenger continued, "They were fighting to get her back in".

Passengers are calling the pilot of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, which staged an emergency landing Tuesday at Philadelphia International Airport, a hero. "We are asking that everyone respect the privacy of the family at this time".

"This was an internal metal fatigue area", Sumwalt continued. Southwest told the FAA in October that airlines needed 18 months and that only certain fan blades should be inspected, not all 24 in engines.

In 2016, a Southwest Boeing 737-700 blew an engine as it flew from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, and shrapnel tore a 5-by-16-inch hole just above the wing.

The NTSB has released pictures of the debris that rained down on a golf course. The passenger compartment wasn't penetrated, but the cabin did decompress.

Investigators said a blade that broke off mid-flight was showing signs of metal fatigue - microscopic cracks that can splinter open under the kind of stress placed on jetliners and their engines. "A buddy, the guy helped, and we got her pulled in, and they tried to resuscitate her".

Every engine manufacturer and airline monitors the engines "very, very closely", according to John Goglia, a former NTSB board member.

The FAA decision comes almost a year after the engine's manufacture recommended that airlines using certain CFM56 engines conduct ultrasonic inspections to look for cracks. An ultrasonic inspection of engine was scheduled to take place this December.

Last year, the FAA estimated that some 220 of these engines would require testing, having carried out a certain number of flights. An engine cycle lasts from when an engine starts until it shuts down. The NTSB and the FAA are investigating the incident.

Sumwalt said they have not determined the age of the engine.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said there were no problems with the plane or its engine when it was inspected on Sunday.

Southwest's voluntary, accelerated checks will be ultrasonic.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment on Martinez's posts.

"They're going to figure this out pretty fast, because it affects so many aircraft and so many engines", he said.

It's also one of the most widely used engines in the air.

But the mantra can become rote, flight attendants told CNN, both for those who deliver it several times a day and for the passengers whose lives it's meant to protect. At the beginning of each flight, the cabin crew will remind passengers what to do if there is decompression in the plane's cabin. A review of the FAA's database suggests that Chromalloy has been approved to make PMA fan blade platforms for this engine, but that no one appears to have been approved to make PMA fan blades for this engine. It's too soon to determine what happened, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt.

The incident resulted in the death of a passenger, which was the first fatality on a United States passenger airline in more than nine years.